^"I'g^ ^] Mearns, Cactus Wretts of the Untied States. 14 1 



a pair. The following season I saw fourteen ; in 1899 this number had 

 increased to about seventy, associating in small flocks. The year 1900 

 showed an increase, and this season, 1901, it appears scattered about the 

 business part of the city, and although as yet not in such numbers as in 

 the eastern cities, the time seems not far distant when it may be. 



THE CACTUS WRENS OF THE UNITED STATES.^ 



BY EDGAR A. MEARNS. 



Within the United States are three forms of the Cactus Wren, 

 all subspecies of the Mexican Heleodytes brunneicapillus (Lafres- 

 naye), occupying, respectively, tlie coastal region of California, 

 the Texan region, and the arid interior region of the Southwest; 

 and a fourth race is confined to southern Lower California. 



Heleodytes brunneicapillus brunneicapillus^ first described by Laf- 

 resnaye (Mag. de Zool., 1835, p. 61, pi. 47), was supposed to have 

 come from California ; but, as the Cactus Wren of the portion of 

 California west of the Coast Range Mountains is different from 

 that east of them, it became necessary to determine with certainty 

 to which form of Heleodytes Lafresnaye's name bru7i7ieicapillus 

 pertains. At my request, in the year 1897 the authorities of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History kindly forwarded the type of 

 Picolaptes brun7ieicapillus Lafresnaye to Mr. Robert Ridgway, at 

 the Smithsonian Institution, and the following are his conclusions 

 respecting it : 



"The type of Picolaptes brunneicapillus Lafresnaye, which I 

 have been able to compare with an extensive series of specimens 

 from the southwestern border of the United States, does not agree 

 with any specimens from north of the Mexican boundary-line, and 

 certainly is not from California, as alleged. It is much deeper 

 colored beneath than any United States specimen, the sides, flanks 

 and abdomen being deep ochraceous-buff. In this respect it 



^These, the largest of our Wrens, are about the size of the Scarlet Tanager, 

 and in the United States are confined to the tier of States and Territories bor- 

 dering on Mexico, and to portions of Utah and Nevada. 



